I was a QFI on 208AFS at Merryfield 1953 till the AFS closed and I was off to Valley, and to commence with we had Meteor7s for dual and Vampire 1s for solo. Students were not allowed solo in the Meteor but the old Vampire 1s (202 gallons) used to go in at an alarming rate and we lost on average, a student every three weeks, and there was a full time funeral party. The situation got so bad that the vicar of the church in Ilton, the adjoining village, would not allow any more RAF funerals in his boneyard as it was filling up, so the Service bought a plot of land in the village to use as a cemetery. We then were re-equiped with Vampire T.11s and Vampire 5s and 9s. and the accident rate dropped straight away.
Much as I liked the Meteor 7 it could bite, I remember my crit. speed was 123kts but that was a real leg trembler, the other thing you learnt quickly in the back seat was to keep your fist under the flap and u/c levers as they were side by side and identical and you blocked the one that you did not want selected.
One other thought was that as the 7 was not pressurised and stomachs and their contents do tend to expand at altitude, the odours floating back from the front seat were somewhat ripe especially from a student on his first try at what was described as a high level formation exercise (don't laugh that was at 35000').
Happy days